I have plenty of RAM and processor bandwidth. However, my kids have a LOT of stuff installed on the system. I try to shut down as many services as I can before burning, but I'm still getting frequent verification failures. Asking because I've noticed that during video/audio playback on the PC, I'm getting "burps" of some sort, in which the system sort of freezes for a sub-second - like the processor is being interrupted. Anyway, wondering if that could be causing my writing failures. Questions: 1. Should the light on the DVD playing be on constantly indicating the data is streaming constantly? 2. Is there a way to bring up windows in a way that all of the crap running on the system won't even start? A minimal configuration of some sort? Thanks JD
Hi there, Burps and skips and freezing problems on playback are usual associated with: A)Cheap Media B)Burned too fast What media are you using ? (Media ID) VSO Inspector v1.1 can provide that to you, the MEDIA ID. What speed are burning at ? I burn at 2x on cheap media, and never above 4x on really good media. My 2 cents...
In this case, the playback in taking place on the PC and not from the DVD drive necessarily, but from disk. The interrupts happen randomly - maybe once a minute or so - and it effects not just DVD playbook, but also audio files as well. Makes we want to go out and buy a cheap PC dedicated to nothing but multi-media processing. At the moment I'm mostly burning football game video for the high school...
@davis3792 Windows has the "safe mode" that loads minimal drivers. I think you push the f8 key while system is booting up. I have never tried it that way, but you might as well, as it isn't hurting the computer, and you can always reboot to get it back to normal. A friend of mine is in to burning DVD's also, and his kids all use the computer also. His encode times with shrink are painfully slow. I haven't been able to look at his system to see the conflicts but I suspect many TSR's going on (terminate stay resident). I would think that anything that causes your system to freeze while burning would also cause burn failures, or pixilation in the output movie, but that is just a guess on my part. I would suggest you try the "safe mode" and you don't need the internet for burning so i wouldn't even go online during the test. Just a thought. It may not load enough drivers to run you DVD programs, but the only way to know for sure, is to try it. If anyone has tried the windows "safe mode" burning method, please post your results here. I guess i could try it myself, but i don't have any problems with "burps" on my computer other than when i do it.
@davis3792: [bold] [/bold] Have you checked your registry, you might have some unwanted programs that are running in the background without your knowdledge. [bold] [/bold] So, the burned dvd's "do" work in your standalone, right? If your talking about the playback in your dvd drive on your pc, it could simply just be dust in the lens, have you tried canned air or cd/dvd cleaner in the drive?
I'll try the canned air...I just hate to create another coaster. : ) Come to think of though, couldn't I use a DVD RW to test until I get the kinks worked out? Most of the DVD's (even though the verification step fails) will work on the player attached to the TV...but they skip and often lock up. Running the DVD off the hard drive (dvd folder) works find. Haven't bothered to try playback from the DVD drive on the PC. Until I can consistently pass the verification step, I guess I shouldn't expect it to run anywhere. I thought about the safe mode, but figured it wouldn't load enough drivers to actual run the client and do the burn, but I'm going to check it out. I do no other work during the burn process. I turn off the screen saver, and whack any background processes (kids IM stuff) that are clearly noise makers and not system threads. I've even tried setting the priority up on the process doing the burning. How about the question about the light on the DVD drive? Should it be on constantly when burning? If it's not, does that indicate a bottleneck somewhere in the system? Thanks for the replies BTW...
@davis3792: Just out of curiosity, what programs are you using to rip? (and encode?) And yes, telling us what brand of media you used (are using) would help a lot. Maybe even your PC specs.
The light on my burner flashes on and off during the burn process at what looked like 1 to 2 second intervals. When it reads a DVD it stays constant for a while (sorry just going on memory). I think it may depend on the buffer size of your burner but i am not sure. Sorry, just a quick answer, and all of what cougar_ii said also applies. The burps this computer is having sounds like a major interrupt is going on. It would not be good to have it burp when burning. Something is asking the computer a question that it has to stop all other tasks in order to answer that question. Find that program, and you find your burp maker.
Well...I was trying to avoid going down the detailed specs route...since it generally leads to someone telling me that I need something different...that costs money. : ) DRU-500A burner W2K Professional with latest patches 1GB sdram 1.6 Ghz Pentium Sonic MyDvd to gen the DVD folder on HDD from a raw AVI dump from Mini-DV tape. Veritas RecordNowDX to burn to DVD. ok...go ahead...tell me I need to buy Nero or something. : )
Media is Maxell. Right on about the burps. Don't know how to ID it other than to start turning things off one by one. Going to try the canned air today. BTW...found out last night that the school has a system for making DVD's. I used it, but had to play back the entire vid from tape for each DVD I burned - no way to burn one from tape and then make copies. : (
You should really get a start up manager. U can get A-Squared Hijack Free @ snapfiles.com for free. I personally use TuneUp Utlitities 2004/5 which has a start up manager amongst other items along with Spybot Search and Destroy's SD Resident shield which will alert you to registry changes which u can allow or deny. U might also want to get another freebie called RegSeeker to clean out your registry and remove unused leftovers. If nothing else it'll help your system run faster/smoothly.
U might also want to get ccleaner from ccleaner.com, ad-aware from download.com. Do a thorough cleaning of your pc. If your kids are installing stuff they probably aren't being all that careful when it comes to spyware/adware.
hi i used to have an app to monitor the bios and updated 5 sec intervals it made the pc jerk every 5 seconds, you may have a simaler app... lights on drives are all different i have 4 drives and have had more, they work differently some on some flash etc... depending on different jobs... skipping on dvd players can mean cheapo discs? burning to close to out edge of dvdr........
